J.K. Rowling revealed that she has second thoughts about her final pairing of Hermione-Ron and Harry-Ginny: she thinks that the brilliant girl and the hero should have been matched up. (Story, some commentary.)

I’m inclined as to disagree with Ms. Rowling. As other commenters have noted, Harry-Hermione is a trite pairing and one that leaves Ron as a superfluous character. Moreover, Harry and Hermione both got to marry into a wizarding family – and a full, happy, functional family at that. (Hermione’s parents are dentists; Harry is an orphan. Neither have wizard parents to guide them in their lives, but they got wizard in-laws.)

The main reason that I’m pro-Ron/Hermione is that Hermione is smart enough for two people. She doesn’t need a super-high-achieving man to underscore how smart she is any more than Times Square needs a street lamp to light it up at night. (That said, the suggestion of Neville Longbottom, official BAMF of the series, is intriguing.)

The sorting hat knew this: it put super-smart Hermione in Gryffindor, not Ravenclaw, showing us from the beginning that there’s more to her than being good at school. Bravery and courage matter quite a bit to her; she’s not a not-evil version of a social climbing Slytherin. So, Ron.